“I promise.” I take that shit seriously

I can’t count the times that I heard the words, “I promise.” Only to be disappointed at the end when they didn’t follow through.

When I say, “I promise to be there.” I’ll be there. If I say, “I promise I won’t do that again.” You better believe I won’t don’t that again. If I say, “I promise not to tell anyone.” No one else will hear the words you say to me. Maybe that’s what blows my mind about the whole situation, the fact that I have such a strong sense of the word, promise, that it’s hard to remember that the overall population of the world doesn’t value it. Which is sad to think about, as kids the thing we valued more than play time and snacks were promises. If you pinky promised you’d play tag with someone at recess the next day, there were no monkey bars that crossed your mind.

It might be silly of me, but I still do pinky promises. I know how much it hurts to be waiting for someone who never shows. The sting you feel when you find someone you care about doing something they promised they wouldn’t do. But what hurts the most, is that moment when you remember that time they said, “I promise.” And for that moment, you believed them.